Commander Perkins

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Commander Perkins is a science fiction series by HG Francis , which was published partly as a radio play and partly as a novel series.

Basics

The series takes place around 50 to 100 years in the future. Humanity has colonized the moon . The lunar base Delta-4 represents a central arena for action. The home solar system has been partially explored.

The scientist Professor Dr. Arthur Common has succeeded in a stroke of genius. He created the Dimension Breaker with the help of his daughter Cindy, who acts as his assistant . This is a transport system with which any distance can be covered without loss of time. With enormous expenditure of energy, the dimensions are broken up. Some people, but also equipment or weapons can be sent and retrieved as far as you want. Commander Randy Perkins' and his friend and colleague Major Peter Hoffmann's journeys to alien planets draw humanity into intergalactic conflicts.

The main characters

  • Commander Randy Perkins, a seasoned officer and the protagonist
  • Major Peter Hoffmann, communications officer and Perkins best friend, is prone to short-circuiting actions
  • Professor Dr. Arthur Common, astrophysicist, the inventor of the dimensional breaker
  • Cindy Common, physicist and mathematician, his impulsive daughter and assistant
  • Ralph Common, the twelve year old son of the professor, has telepathic talents
  • Colonel G. Camiel Jason, Commander of the Moon Base, an unsympathetic person
  • Camiel, a robot of the individual class, brings humor to the series
  • General Basil Lucan Crinian, the Commander in Chief of the Armed Forces of the Earth

The cycles

The Weganer six divider

The first cycle consists of six radio play series that were produced by Europe from 1976 to 1978 . Heikedine Körting directed the text and HG Francis wrote the texts. The running length of the individual radio plays varies between 35 and 50 minutes.

The individual consequences:

  1. The Gateway to Another World (1976)
  2. In the Stream of Infinity (1976)
  3. The Secret of the UFOs (1977)
  4. Bordon the Immortal (1977)
  5. Saturn calls Delta-4 (1978)
  6. Expedition into the Past (1978)

The roles and their speakers:

In other roles: Andreas Beurmann , Volker Bogdan , Volker Brandt , Werner Cartano , Peter Kirchberger , Ernst von Klipstein , Lutz Mackensy , Rolf Mamero , Christian Mey , Hella von der Osten-Sacken , Jochen Sehrndt , Horst Schick , Heinz Trixner , Claus Wilcke .

The plot

The dimensional breaker is still in the experimental stage. However, contact has already been made with the eighth planet of Vega . Cameras and space probes were used to gather information about the planet. Ralph Common is lured into the Dimension Breaker on the moon base by a telepathic voice . He can overcome all safety barriers and is transported to the Vega planet, where his trail is lost.

Professor Common asks Commander Perkins and Major Hoffmann to bring his son back from the strange world. This succeeds, but Ralph Common tells the two men that there must be a connection between the earth and Vega, since there are maps on the planet that show the Mediterranean region . Communication with the Weganers is not yet possible , with the exception of the telepathic voice .

In the course of time the Wegans recognize that a dimensional portal has emerged between the worlds. You send an ambassador to the moon, but he is accidentally killed by the humans. To mediate, Perkins and Hoffmann travel to Wega again. The attempt at reconciliation fails, Perkins is taken prisoner. An attempt at liberation succeeds, but the commander has apparently been brainwashed and falls into a kind of vegetative state for half a year .

At the same time as Perkins wakes up, a Weganer spaceship appears on earth, but it is unintentionally shot down by the humans. Some survivors try to get to the Dimension Breaker to return to their homeworld. Professor Common wants to let the Weganer go, but the military want to interrogate the aliens. They are transported back to Vega head over heels. With the dimensional leap, however, a mistake is made: Perkins, Hoffmann and the Weganer are thrown into the past of the Wegaplanet, where the two people are held responsible for a murder through no fault of their own. At the very last second, Professor Common tracks down the two men and can bring them back. In the meantime, evidence has been found that the Vegans had something to do with the biblical catastrophe of Sodom and Gomorrah .

Since all men of the downed spaceship are considered dead on the Vega, the Vegans send a space fleet to earth to take revenge. The annihilation of mankind seems inevitable when Perkins succeeds in making contact with the powerful Wegan Bordon. He can convince him that it is necessary to travel back in time to Sodom and Gomorrah, where the conflicts between humans and Weganers apparently originated. At the biblical place it can be clarified that the tensions between the two races actually had their origin back then, in a misunderstanding of the Wegans, which was triggered by the death of one of their dignitaries and resulted in the annihilation of the two cities by the aliens. Bordon and Perkins put an end to the enmity between humans and Weganians.

The first novels

In 1979 two Commander Perkins novels were published by Franz Schneider Verlag for the first time . Interestingly, in both books, H. G. Francis makes no reference to the plot of the radio drama episodes. The second novel introduces a new character, the robot Camiel.

The red fog

A red veil lies around the earth, which makes people disappear when they sink to the ground. It is found that the mist came out of the dimensional breaker as a small ball and damaged it in the process. After the repair, Commander Perkins, Major Hoffmann and Ralph Common travel to the planet Empty, where the nebula came from, and try to figure out how to combat the alien substance that threatens all life on earth. Back on the moon, the red nebula is lured into a particle accelerator, in which it is trapped from then on.

Planet of the Soulless

Ralph Common and all psi- gifted people on earth are dying, a telepathic force from the planet Psion seems to destroy their brains. At the last second you can protect Ralph from the psi attack with a special helmet. Commander Perkins, Major Hoffmann, Ralph Common and the robot Camiel travel to Psion to investigate the cause of the attack. In doing so, they discover that all the inhabitants of the alien planet act like soulless machines. Some time ago a scientist invented a super robot there, and it also took possession of it. This biologically acting robot then enslaved the entire population and developed parapsychic abilities. Perkins and Hoffmann turn off this robot and destroy the biological substance.

The Arrow trilogy

The second cycle consists of three radio play series that were released in 1980 under the direction of Heikedine Körting on the Europa label. HG Francis wrote the text. Two more episodes were announced but never came out. HG Francis also never wrote text templates for it. It is not entirely clear why the episodes stopped appearing. However, the lack of sales of the first three radio plays may have been the decisive factor. The storyline around the planet Arrow and the Middle Eye is unfinished. HG Francis has woven elements from the Arrow cycle into the plot of the Copaner cycle , so that there are some inconsistencies in the books.

The length of each radio play is approx. 33 minutes.

  1. Lost in Infinity (1980)
  2. The Galactic Armorer (1980)
  3. The Middle Eye (1980)

The roles and their actors:

The plot

Professor Common has located a planet that is littered with spaceship wrecks. The military under Colonel Jason are primarily interested in recovering weapons from the destroyed spaceships. In their research, people are startled by a highly technical people who are trying to target the earth through the dimensional breaker. They hastily attempted an evacuation, but documents remain on Arrow that could reveal the galactic position of the earth. Perkins and Hoffmann are captured during a rescue attempt. The middle eye , an intergalactic superpower and its galactic armorer who rule Arrow, try to interrogate the two men. Professor Common can bring them back to Earth just in time. But Polcor, an armorer, strikes back and sends a sun destroyer to Earth, which Perkins and Hoffman then return to the Middle Eye with difficult maneuvers. The middle eye is so angry about this that it destroys the planet Arrow and sentences Polcor to death. Perkins and Hoffmann are finally rescued from the ruins of the destroyed planet Arrow by Professor Common.

The Copaner cycle

The third cycle consists of four novels:

  1. The Forbidden Star (1980)
  2. In the land of the green sun (1980)
  3. Lost in Infinity (1981)
  4. Under the spell of glowing eyes (1981)

In 1980 and 1981 four more books were published by Franz Schneider Verlag, which resulted in a coherent storyline. Again, no reference is made to the Arrow cycle , although the middle eye again plays an important role.

The plot

The people begin to colonize the planet Lightfire, which has the best living conditions. They were too careless about the first investigation of the planet: Commander Perkins as well as Ralph Common and his friend George Croden discover an ancient robot on a discovery tour in a cave. The machine attacks the three, but falls apart due to old age. Shortly thereafter, Ralph and George began to age rapidly, slowly turning them into old people. In the search for the cause, it turns out that Lightfire is the central sanctuary of the Copan Empire. Several satellites orbit the planet and constantly send a warning to enter the planet. All races who dare to enter Lightfire will be destroyed by the Copans. People are now hastily trying to evacuate the planet. But the Copanic high priest Arentes discovers the people before they have completely withdrawn. He manages to smuggle himself back to earth with a return transport. Arentes finds people interesting and wants to study them. The peace-loving Copaner also wants to find out whether the Terrans are worth sparing. Meanwhile, people are laying the wrong lead and pretending that planet Escape is the earth. The Copans fall for the ruse and throw a black hole on the wrong world. However, upon closer exploration of Escape, Perkins and his friend Major Hoffmann discover that the "decoy planet" is inhabited. People are now feverishly trying to divert the black hole off course with the help of the dimension breaker. With a gigantic project, the black hole is being diverted and Escape is saved from destruction. Afterward, Professor Common explores another Copanian planet against Colonel Jason's opposition to learn more about the most powerful people in the galaxies. After first investigations with robots have been carried out, Commander Perkins, Major Hoffman and the robot Camiel are to be sent to this planet to collect information. During the transport through the dimensions, however, a superior force intervenes in the dimension breaker and sends the three travelers to another world in the realm of the Copans. After several incidents in which the power that manipulated the dimensional breaker has its hands in the game, Perkins, Hoffman and Camiel crash in a spaceship on a planet on which our universe overlaps with that of another. The Copans have built a huge complex of buildings on this planet, in which a highly complex machine system is housed, which is supposed to close these dimensional gaps in order to prevent the alien space from breaking into our universe. During their odyssey controlled by the foreign power, Perkins and his friends were given false information, so that they see a tracking system in the building complex that is supposed to target the dimensional breaker and thus the earth. In order to prevent this, the three Terrans penetrate the building, incapacitate the Copans working there and initiate an overload of the fusion reactor. Meanwhile, Professor Common has contacted Arentes to learn about the whereabouts of Perkins and his team. Shortly before the destruction, Professor Common and Arentes save the defense fort. At the same time, Perkins, Hoffmann and the professor disappear through a dimensional gap in the parallel universe. The rulers of the parallel universe want to move to the Milky Way because their universe is collapsing. Perkins and Hoffman want to help, but the nature of the parallel residents does not allow that. They had already sent the Red Nebula to depopulate the Milky Way. Professor Common and his friends avert the danger from the parallel universe and friendship with the Copans ensues.

The seven pillar cycle

The fourth cycle consists of three novels:

  1. The third moon (1983)
  2. The Seven Pillars Mystery (1984)
  3. The Time Trap (1984)

The last three novels were published by Franz Schneider Verlag in 1983 and 1984. These formed the prelude to the seven-pillar cycle . At least one other novel was in preparation, but has not been published. Hence, this storyline is incomplete.

The plot

During research on the planet Phart, Perkins, Hoffmann, Camiel and Cindy Common come across a sleeper ship buried in the earth. There is a warlike people on board, for whom the planet is a prison. The people wake up these warriors and have no idea what danger they are creating for other planets. The ship sets course for the planet Canyoura to attack it. Perkins and the others travel to Canyoura to warn the population. They are not believed, however, because no one would dare to attack the planet since the first of the Seven Pillars is located there. When people start researching the meaning of the Seven Pillars , they are captured and trained as gladiators to maintain the canyoning tours. On their escape, Perkins and Hoffmann find out that the secret of the first pillar is immortality. Perkins, Hoffmann and Ralph solve the first riddle of the seven pillars and penetrate the time crypt with the help of the dimension breaker and become relatively immortal for a year. In order to solve the second riddle, you have to break through an energy screen on the moon of a planet in order to become finally immortal. But the middle eye wants to prevent this with the help of some renegade Copans. Perkins and Hoffmann fall into the time trap, so that in a short space of time they use up the year and threaten to die. Shortly before the deadline expires, Ralph, Perkins and Hoffmann flee back to the earth's moon in order to reach the mysterious moon. Meanwhile, Colonel Jason is trying to prevent ultimate immortality. But Perkins still manages to reach the mysterious place with Hoffmann and Ralph, and they then become immortal. In addition, the earth and its moon are given a protective screen to prevent any attacks from outside. Colonel Jason is not happy because it makes his security work obsolete.

The setting of the novels

The nine novels by HG Francis have been set to music by the radio play label Maritim . However, these appeared under the name Das Sternentor , since Europe still has the naming rights for Commander Perkins .

The individual consequences:

  1. The Red Fog (2002)
  2. Planet of the Soulless (2003)
  3. The Forbidden Star (2003)
  4. In the land of the green sun (2004)
  5. Lost in Infinity (2006)
  6. Under the spell of glowing eyes (2006)
  7. The third moon (March 2008) double CD
  8. The Riddle of the Seven Pillars (April 2008) double CD
  9. Die Zeitfalle (January 2009) double CD

The roles and their actors:

In other roles: Gerhard Acktun , Peer Augustinski , Volker Brandt , Niels Clausnitzer , Tanja Dohse , Eckart Dux , Sabine Gutberlet , Sabine Hahn , Michael Harck , Thomas Karallus , Günter Lüdke , Robert Missler , Ben Münchow , Reent Reins , Charles Rettinghaus , Ursula Vogel , Pia Werfel , Claus Wilcke .

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